Abstract
Depleted reservoirs are widely used for underground gas storage due to their advantages of low construction cost and easy development. Under the influence of complex geological conditions and frequent operations, the integrity of the wells in depleted reservoirs is prone to failure, which would potentially lead to gas leakage. In this study, by using a finite element–based computational fluid dynamics model, we have developed evaluation criteria for assessing the severity of the occurred wellbore integrity failure and the risk of the un-occurred wellbore integrity failures respectively to identify hazardous zones potentially prone to wellbore integrity failure. The study results indicate that the gas storage wellbore integrity failure is prone to occur inside the wellbore structure in the direction of the minimum ground stress near the lower boundary of the formation interlayer. The wellbore integrity failure hazardous zones are mainly concentrated at the formation interlayer boundaries. The practical guidelines and solutions derived from current research results can provide an accurate direction for monitoring and protecting work of wellbore integrity and avoid environment pollution problems caused by natural gas leakage.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
References
Bois A-P, Garnier A, Galdiolo G, Laudet J-B (2012) Use of a mechanistic model to forecast cement-sheath integrity. SPE Drill Complet 27:303–314
Bosma M, Ravi K, Driel WV, Schreppers GJ (1999) Design approach to sealant selection for the life of the well. In: SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, SPE, pp SPE-56536
Boukhelifa L, Moroni N, James SG, Le Roy–Delage S, Thiercelin MJ, Lemaire G (2004) Evaluation of cement systems for oil and gas well zonal isolation in a full-scale annular geometry. In: SPE/IADC Drilling Conference and Exhibition, SPE, pp SPE-87195
Camacho GT, Ortiz M (1996) Computational modelling of impact damage in brittle materials. Int J Solids Struct 33:2899–2938
Confort MJF, Mothe CG (2014) Estimating the required underground natural gas storage capacity in Brazil from the gas industry characteristics of countries with gas storage facilities. J Nat Gas Sci Eng 18:120–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JNGSE.2014.02.004
Currell M, Banfield D, Cartwright I, Cendón DI (2017) Geochemical indicators of the origins and evolution of methane in groundwater: Gippsland Basin, Australia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24:13168–13183
Dahi Taleghani A, Li G, Moayeri M (2017) Smart expandable cement additive to achieve better wellbore integrity. J Energy Resour Technol 139(6):062903
Davies RJ, Almond S, Ward RS et al (2014) Oil and gas wells and their integrity: Implications for shale and unconventional resource exploitation. Mar Pet Geol 56:239–254. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2014.03.001
Dethlefs JC, Chastain B (2012) Assessing well-integrity risk: a qualitative model. SPE Drill Complet 27:294–302
Dong J, Ni M, Chi Y et al (2013) Life cycle and economic assessment of source-separated MSW collection with regard to greenhouse gas emissions: a case study in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20:5512–5524
Dong X, Duan Z, Gao D (2020) Assessment on the cement integrity of CO2 injection wells through a wellbore flow model and stress analysis. J Nat Gas Sci Eng 74:103097
Dou H, Dong X, Duan Z et al (2020) Cement integrity loss due to interfacial debonding and radial cracking during CO2 injection. Energies 13:4589
Gholami R, Rabiei M, Rasouli V et al (2015) Application of quantitative risk assessment in wellbore stability analysis. J Pet Sci Eng 135:185–200
Goodwin KJ, Crook RJ (1992) Cement sheath stress failure. SPE Drill Eng 7:291–296. https://doi.org/10.2118/20453-PA
Gray KE, Podnos E, Becker E (2009) Finite-element studies of near-wellbore region during cementing operations: Part I. SPE Drill Complet 24:127–136. https://doi.org/10.2118/106998-PA
Guo B, Shan L, Jiang S et al (2018) The maximum permissible fracturing pressure in shale gas wells for wellbore cement sheath integrity. J Nat Gas Sci Eng 56:324–332. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.JNGSE.2018.06.012
Le ST, Nguyen TN, Linforth S, Ngo TD (2023) Safety investigation of hydrogen energy storage systems using quantitative risk assessment. Int J Hydrogen Energy 48:2861–2875
Liang B, Lan H, Lin N (2018) Diffusion simulation and safety assessment of oil leaked in the ground. J Pet Sci Eng 167:498–505
Michanowicz DR, Buonocore JJ, Rowland ST et al (2017) A national assessment of underground natural gas storage: identifying wells with designs likely vulnerable to a single-point-of-failure. Environ Res Lett 12:64004
Moos D, Peska P, Finkbeiner T, Zoback M (2003) Comprehensive wellbore stability analysis utilizing quantitative risk assessment. J Pet Sci Eng 38:97–109
Neves AAS, Pinardi N, Martins F et al (2015) Towards a common oil spill risk assessment framework–adapting ISO 31000 and addressing uncertainties. J Environ Manage 159:158–168
Ravi K, Bosma M, Gastebled O (2002) Improve the economics of oil and gas wells by reducing the risk of cement failure. In: SPE/IADC Drilling Conference and Exhibition, SPE, pp SPE-74497
Rocha-Valadez T, Hasan AR, Mannan S, Kabir CS (2014) Assessing wellbore integrity in sustained-casing-pressure annulus. SPE Drill Complet 29:131–138
Santos L, Dahi Taleghani A (2022). On quantitative assessment of effective cement bonding to guarantee wellbore integrity. J Energy Resour Technol 144(1):013001
Shi J, Zhao D, Ren F, Huang L (2023) Spatiotemporal variation of soil heavy metals in China: the pollution status and risk assessment. Sci Total Environ 871:161768
Tartakovsky DM (2013) Assessment and management of risk in subsurface hydrology: a review and perspective. Adv Water Resour 51:247–260
Teodoriu C, Kosinowski C, Amani M et al (2013) Wellbore integrity and cement failure at HPHT conditions. Int J Eng 2:2305–8269. https://doi.org/10.2118/184254-MS
Thiercelin MJ, Dargaud B, Baret JF, Rodriquez WJ (1998) Cement design based on cement mechanical response. SPE Drill Complet 13:266–273. https://doi.org/10.2118/52890-PA
Wang R, Yan Y, Liu Y et al (2022) Analysis of depleted gas reservoir underground gas storage wellbore integrity change during gas injection and production processes. J Pet Sci Eng 215:110585
Wang W, Taleghani AD (2014) Three-dimensional analysis of cement sheath integrity around wellbores. J Pet Sci Eng 121:38–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.PETROL.2014.05.024
Wei CHU, Jiyun S, Yunfei Y et al (2015) Calculation of micro-annulus size in casing-cement sheath-formation system under continuous internal casing pressure change. Pet Explor Dev 42:414–421. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1876-3804(15)30033-1
Winecki S, Nowaczewski S, Johnson KL et al (2022) Quantitative assessment approach to assess benefits of subsurface safety valves and tubing and packer systems in depleted reservoir and aquifer gas storage wells. J Pet Sci Eng 208:109392
Yang C, Wang T, Li Y et al (2015) Feasibility analysis of using abandoned salt caverns for large-scale underground energy storage in China. Appl Energy 137:467–481. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.APENERGY.2014.07.048
Zhang W, Eckert A (2020) Micro-annulus generation under downhole conditions: insights from three-dimensional staged finite element analysis of cement hardening and wellbore operations. J Rock Mech Geotech Eng 12:1185–1200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2020.03.003
Zhang L, Wu X, Ding L, Skibniewski MJ (2013) A novel model for risk assessment of adjacent buildings in tunneling environments. Build Environ 65:185–194
Zhechao W, Wei L, Jie L (2019) A review on state-of-the-art of underground gas storage and causes of typical accidents. Hazard Control Tunn Undergr Eng 1:49–58
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank anonymous reviewers for their constructive discussions and inspiring comments. The authors would like to thank the financial support for this work from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52304017).
Funding
The authors received financial support for this work from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52304017).
National Natural Science Foundation of China,Grant No. 52304017,Chaojie Zhao
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Rui Wang: conceptualization, methodology, software, writing—original draft.
Ergun Kuru: conceptualization, writing—review and editing, supervision, resources.
Chaojie Zhao: validation, supervision, visualization.
Minggang Liu: writing—review and editing, investigation.
Yanxin Jin: supervision.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
Not applicable.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent to publish
Not applicable.
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Philippe Garrigues
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Wang, R., Kuru, E., Zhao, C. et al. Assessment of wellbore integrity failure risk and hazardous zones in depleted reservoirs underground gas storage during the operation processes. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 2079–2089 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31297-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-31297-8